Sunday, February 18, 2007

Siegman is Looney

Henry Siegman, former executive director of the American Jewish Congress and representative symbol of Jewish organizational official failure, former Senior Fellow and Director of the U.S./Middle East Project for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), is now director of the U.S./Middle East Project and the Sir Joseph Hotung professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

The recent agreement in Mecca between Fatah and Hamas demonstrates the fallacy of a widely held belief — that the United States alone holds the key to resolving the Israel- Palestine conflict. In fact, the Saudi-sponsored accord opens the door to a major European role in the Middle East peace effort. The question is whether Europe will walk through that door.

Although Hamas has committed itself to "respect" previous agreements between the PLO and Israel, it is not yet clear whether the Mecca accord obligates Hamas to explicitly recognize Israel. What is clear is that if Hamas and Fatah implement the agreement, form a unity government and return the rule of law to Gaza and the West Bank, they will have withdrawn from the brink of a Palestinian civil war that would have ended for the foreseeable future remaining prospects for a peace process and Palestinian statehood. That is a major achievement for which Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah deserves great credit.

...The Europeans should announce immediately the end of their boycott of Hamas and open a dialogue with a new unity government on conditions that would enable them to end sanctions imposed by the Quartet on the Palestinian Authority. These conditions should recognize that Hamas should not be asked to do that which the international community is not prepared to ask of Israel. Hamas should be asked to declare its willingness to recognize Israel if and when Israel declares its recognition of Palestinian rights within the pre-1967 border.

A Palestinian government that receives substantial Saudi financing is less dependent on the European Union than it was before the Mecca agreement. But there is no question that European economic assistance, which undoubtedly would be followed by wider international support, remains a powerful inducement for Palestinian diplomacy. In the aftermath of Saudi Arabia's breaking of the taboo against support of a government that includes Hamas, it should not require all that much courage to follow in King Abdullah's footsteps. And given U.S. dependence on the support of moderate Arab regimes in confronting Iran and in dealing with its troubles in Iraq, it is not at all unimaginable that such a European initiative will sooner or later bring the United States along in its wake.

About Me

American born, my wife and I moved to Israel in 1970. We have lived at Shiloh together with our family since 1981. I was in the Betar youth movement in the US and UK. I have worked as a political aide to Members of Knesset and a Minister during 1981-1994, lectured at the Academy for National Studies 1977-1994, was director of Israel's Media Watch 1995-2000 and currently, I work at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem. I was a guest media columnist on media affairs for The Jerusalem Post, op-ed contributor to various journals and for six years had a weekly media show on Arutz 7 radio. I serve as an unofficial spokesperson for the Jewish Communities in Judea & Samaria.